Ohio appeals court keeps Columbus gun-magazine ban and storage rule on hold

As of 1:50 p.m. ET, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026

An Ohio appeals court has upheld an order that blocks Columbus from enforcing its ban on large-capacity gun magazines and its rule against negligent storage of firearms, according to the court's opinion.

The Fifth District Court of Appeals released its decision in Doe v. Columbus, 2026-Ohio-3991, on Oct. 9, 2026. Presiding Judge Hoffman wrote the opinion, and Judges Baldwin and Montgomery concurred. The panel overruled all five of the city's assignments of error and affirmed the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas.

What the ordinance does

The Columbus City Council passed Ordinance 3176-2022 in December 2022. It prohibits carrying or possessing certain high-capacity magazines and makes it a crime to store a firearm where a person "knows or reasonably should know a minor is able to gain access to" it, with penalties that include a mandatory jail term, the opinion said.

Anonymous plaintiffs, represented by the Buckeye Institute, sued in February 2023, arguing the rules violated Ohio Revised Code 9.68 and the Ohio Constitution. The Delaware County court granted a preliminary injunction on April 25, 2023.

The ruling

The appeals court rejected the city's argument that R.C. 9.68 violates the city's home-rule authority. The court said the statute grants "persons in Ohio the right to carry a handgun unless federal or state law prohibits them from doing so" and bars municipal ordinances from infringing on that right. "Because R.C. 9.68 is constitutional, we find Appellees are likely to prevail" on their statutory claims, the court wrote. It also found no error in the trial court's weighing of harm and the public interest.

The court decided the appeal on remand from the Ohio Supreme Court, which had reversed the Fifth District's earlier decision in the case and sent it back with instructions to consider the merits.

The ruling keeps the injunction in place while the case continues. It is not a final judgment on the ordinance. The city could seek review by the Ohio Supreme Court; GROKsiNEWS.com found no public statement from the city on its next step as of this article's time stamp.

Why it matters

The decision is the latest in a long dispute over how far Ohio cities can go in regulating guns when state law reserves most firearms regulation to the state.